It was not that long ago that Republicans were the reasonable ones, providing a necessary small-government, pro-business counterweight to well-meaning yet often unrealistic policies put forward by Democrats. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case since this new faction of the GOP, the so-called “Tea Party,” emerged from what must be a very dark place of the American psyche.

And now the inimical manifestation of that dark place threatens to destroy the American economy — an event that you must know will in turn do the very same to the entire world economy — simply because it refuses to give in on even a few of its more unreasonable demands vis a vis the deficit and the debt ceiling, or compromise with the Democrats, who are now the reasonable ones.

Unbelievable!

Even more unbelievable is me, writing to you to implore you, and any other reasonable Republicans who may be serving in the House of Representatives, to please reconsider the plan put forward by (of all people) Senate majority leader Harry Reid. This was the measure that will provide much-needed certainty in the markets by raising the debt ceiling until 2013, while cutting $2.7 trillion from the budget without increasing taxes.

Yes, I know that part of those savings come from the winding down of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Republicans included those very same savings in their budget cutting proposals, too. Thus I do not buy into the nonsense claims that Mr. Reid’s plan contains  ”accounting tricks,” as if such machinations are the exclusive purview of Democrats.

To paraphrase President Obama, I voted for a divided government, not a dysfunctional one. The two parties, one liberal and the other conservative, are supposed to pull each other toward a reasonable center and implement solutions that keep government small so that it is efficient, but not so small that it becomes ineffective.

So, please be reasonable. Put the welfare of the nation ahead of partisanship and ideology —  the Democrats have bent over backwards to do so — and please try to persuade other Republicans to do the same.

There is medicine that has been proven safe and effective through a scientifically rigorous, multi-step clinical trials process.

There is also medicine whose safety and efficacy are still being investigated. Because it’s unethical to sell experimental treatments, people who are participating in legitimate clinical trials get the treatments for free, and some are even paid for their time and trouble, and get their associated expenses reimbursed. (Are there any so-called “alternative” practitioners who operate that way?)

And then there are numerous substances, devices, and methods that have already been tested and found to be ineffective but are marketed as “alternative” remedies — unless or until the FDA removes them from the market due to safety concerns.

Before the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994, so-called “alternative” remedies were called snake-oil, quackery and health fraud, and those who peddled such nostrums were called charlatans, quacks, and even criminals.

Now, under the DSHEA — unless or until it is repealed — charlatans, snake-oil peddlers and quacks have the “health freedom” to ply their trade and cash in on the woefully misinformed.

Yet, so-called “alternative” remedies are still just as worthless, and potentially dangerous, as snake-oil was before the DSHEA — it just has a new, “politically correct,” and far more marketable, name.

Hat tip to Good As You, whose headline, “The monologue that reason8s in their heads at night,” is appropriately ingenious.